The Mech Touch

The significance of creating a masterwork was always great.

Though no one was able to offer a truly precise definition of a masterwork, those who lived for their craft were always able to recognize the pinnacle of what an object could be. The appreciation that mech designers and other knowledgeable people exhibited towards works of supreme quality could not easily be passed on to those who lacked the requisite depth.

In fact, whether a masterwork actually performed substantially better than a more 'normal' copy was still a hotly-debated question. Too many people who did not understand anything about craftsmanship could not fathom why the value of a masterwork copy was a hundred, a thousand and in some ridiculous cases even a million times more expensive than a normal version of the product!

The materials were the same. The design was nearly identical. While there were certainly minute physical differences between a masterwork mech and a non-masterwork mech, these tiny shifts and adjustments were extremely crucial. They did not only optimize a design a little bit further, but also adjusted to the individual properties of the actual materials used in a design.

Not every material was the same. Two identical bars of Breyer alloy might look and weigh the same, but when put under a detailed scanner, it was always possible to detect slight imperfections and natural variations.

One of the reasons why the high-tech industry sector developed the fabled and incredibly demanding materialization process was to control for these difficult variables!

By breaking down raw materials into individual atoms and molecules, a sophisticated production machine could select the most standard and suitable ones to piece together into a solid work.

Any mech produced through materialization was theoretically identical to a given design.

Yet the automated materialization process was not smart and adaptable enough to work with the natural imperfections and variations of different materials.

Usually, these deviations were considered flaws, but in the right hands, the unique materials could be shaped and combined in a way that delivered greater performance than before.

Masterwork mechs were intricately tied with synergy. They were put together in an exceptionally exquisite manner that somehow allowed them to make a collection of average components perform well and a collection of excellent components perform to an unreal degree!

There was a lot more to masterwork mechs than just these simple effects. The mysterious transformation that masterwork mechs always undertook was largely metaphysical in nature. A single whole product that had reached an ideal state of a given design was such an astonishing creation that reality itself seemed to take a bow in front of it. This was the least that it could do after welcoming a work that deserved to be immortalized throughout the ages.

"We need to implement more safety precautions. The damage output of this mech should not be small." Juliet suggested as the mech designers all stood behind spare work stations on the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim.

An occasion as memorable and important as this had to be witnessed from the throne room of the factory ship.

"Should we deploy extra interference measures in order to hide the Sentry Project even further? The more people know about it, the more it will be coveted."

"That's not necessarily the case." Gloriana shook her head. "Don't forget that proper expert mechs are tailored to an individual expert pilot from the ground up. While there are lazier methods that simply take an existing template and make some hasty adjustments to an expert pilot, that is not what we have done. I have done my utmost to meet each and every need of Venerable Stark. I can guarantee you that if another expert pilot like Venerable Joshua or my brother attempts to pilot the Sentry Project, they will never be able to do it justice."

She was absolutely confident in her own judgement. Designing an expert mech was one of the few times that she could truly stop bothering with trying to make a machine compatible with a range of users. By adopting a bespoke approach, she could maximize the compatibility between her product and her intended customer, which would hopefully result in a unique experience that also delivered much greater performance without resorting to more expensive parts and materials.

This was her way of making a mark in the mech industry.

"We don't need to bother with confidentiality too much." Ves remarked as he set up his own workstation. "The MTA probably already knows about it and it will be difficult to hide our new creation from our allies. I believe it is better to briefly show it off to the Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan so that they know that we have taken another major step. Perhaps in time news of our incredible accomplishment will spread through the mech community, but as long as the exact performance parameters of our expert mech remains vague, we can still surprise any enemies we come across."

Ketis snorted. "I'm not sure if many people will even want to provoke us after they learn what we can do. I might not pay much attention to the greater mech community, but I'm certain that we can become galactic celebrities if we wish! People throughout this galaxy and the next will soon knock on our doors in order to request a custom mech from us. Although the chance of producing a masterwork for them is too small to bother, I don't think we'll be able to remain as incognito as before."

Were masterwork expert mechs rare? Not necessarily. The greatest of Masters and Star Designers were able to make them at a decent rate according to articles that Ves had read. He wasn't sure whether this statement was true, but those who were willing to pay unlimited sums or grand favors were able to get the absolute best expert mechs one way or another.

Yet for most people, such works of art were absolutely unattainable. They could forget about approaching such supremely accomplished mech designers.

Compared to trying to request a mech from a powerful and unreachable figure, it was a lot easier to approach a bunch of Journeymen who somehow lucked out and produced a miracle!

Ves already felt the onset of a headache. He even entertained the radical idea of destroying the masterwork that had just been born into this cosmos, but he immediately strangled it a second later.

Deliberately destroying the realized Sentry Project was one of the greatest blasphemies that a mech designer like him could ever commit! His own design philosophy recoiled at the thought and his professional standards simply couldn't tolerate the thought at all. No matter what consequences a masterwork mech produced, it should never be despoiled!

"Ugh." Ves rubbed his palm against his face. "I'm too tired to figure out what we should do next. All I know is that hiding it will never work in the long run. The best we can do is to control how we release our information."

To be honest, he had no other ideas on what to do besides that. He was not a well-connected mech designer who was part of any greater industry-oriented clubs and communities at the moment.

If he was still aligned with Master Olson or part of the Clifford Society, then he could easily shelter under their wing and have them handle the aftermath of what he had done.

"It's too bad I cut ties with them. I don't have any choice but to go directly to the MTA."

In fact, he was already counting down the time it took for a familiar dignitary to show up. He was sure that this annoying frequent visitor would present him with a firm recommendation.

The only question was how much leeway he had in refusing her suggestions. Her attitude was an extremely important indicator to how much she, her faction and the rest of the MTA valued him at this time.

"Well, she hasn't treated me wrong so far. The MTA always indulges in people who contribute to the industry."

He briefly threw a glance at Gloriana. His pregnant wife was happily humming behind her own workstation as she projected over fifty different data projections.

Ves did not forget that one of Gloriana's driving motivators to do well was to ask a favor from the MTA! With an accomplishment as amazing as this, she was bound to get her wish and even more.

The Sentry Project is about to launch!

The entire bridge became a lot more quiet as many Larkinsons who heard that they were about to try out a new expert mech became incredibly curious to what they were about to behold.

The Dark Zephyr had already exceeded their expectations. This next expert mech should at least equal the splendor of the Larkinson Clan's first expert mech!

The Larkinson Army was already in the process of implementing an exercise region in open space.

Due to the potential dangers of testing an expert mech that was noted for its firepower, Gloriana decided to hold the examination at least a hundred kilometers away from the main fleet. This meant that it would take a lot of time to move all of the bots, mechs and hardware to a patch of open space.

The increased activity emanating from the Larkinson fleet had already caught the attention of the Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan. The sensors aboard their ships and mechs were already paying extra attention towards the Larkinson assets.

Marshal Ariadne Wodin and Patriarch Reginald Cross already received a brief and not very helpful notification of what the Larkinson Clan were about to do. Though it shouldn't be too unusual for the Larkinsons to make a big movement in order to put a new expert mech to its paces, the activity taking place in their fleet was a lot more exaggerated this time!

"It seems the Larkinsons believe their next expert mech to be quite special." Professor Benedict Cortez noted as he entered the bridge of the Hemmington Cross and walked next to the leader. "The Dark Zephyr the brats managed to design is quite a stellar package. I would love to get my hands on the materials used to make its armor system. Those damn Journeymen are so wasteful!"

"I have a feeling this mech will be different." Patriarch Reginald spoke.

The Senior Mech Designer frowned. "That's strange. I feel the same way. I couldn't concentrate on my design work at all in the last twelve hours. Those Larkinson Journeymen must have been working hard if they can affect my concentration from such an extensive distance."

While numerous people began to speculate on what the Larkinsons were about to show, the expert pilot who had the privilege of piloting the most remarkable mech produced by the Larkinsons was just about to interface with it for the first time.

The long amount of time she spent with the Larkinsons had calmed her down and made her appreciate her new life, but this was not what she was all about.

"I'm not a Larkinson. I'm a survivor of the Vindmar Republic."

She recalled all of the sights she had seen when Brutus took her on a tour to the sandscoured remains of her former state.

The desolate planets. The sandblasted landscapes. The cities submerged in soil. All of these tragic sights and more reminded her of what she was truly trying to accomplish.

"Those responsible.. must pay!" She softly hissed!

Her force of will roared to life as the fires of retribution burned in her eyes. She resolutely activated her expert mech, causing her to interface with a new and completely different machine!

The mech technicians standing far away in the hangar bay all skipped a breath as the expert rifleman mech flared to life! The red-coated mech lit up as its third eye along with several other elements began to show off an attractive luster.

However, these luminous elements were incomparable to the rainbow patterns emitted by the rifle carried by the Sentry Project.

Even though it was not fully active, the weapon already surged with so much life and energy that the mech technicians felt as if they were going blind if they kept staring at this exquisite weapon!

"This expert mech is completely opposite of the Dark Zephyr!"

Whereas the Dark Zephyr was the epitome of a shadow, the Sentry Project was the pinnacle of light!